Achron
by Zenog
Summary: 'Parallels' as it is/was/will be/could be. The pieces of Parallels as I write them, in the order I write them, even if they don't quite fit in to the timeline. The ones that make the final cut will be posted in order for the main story, but this is where everything is. Rated for violence, language, and (once it actually shows up) crude humor.
1. Disclaimer and Introduction

Welcome to Achron, so named because the chapters appear in an achronal order. That is to say, this is the metaphorical "big ball of wibbly-wobbly, time-y wime-y... stuff" that the Tenth Doctor talks about in Blink rather than the "straight progression of cause to effect." This is where I will be posting completed chapters/scenes for Parallels as they are finished. Most if not all of them will be included in the finished product once the linear storyline reaches their spot, with some minor tweaking to make them fit better. The others don't quite fit into the timeline, so they're here more as a thought exercise on the butterfly effect.

The only things that you will not see in this compendium are smut (or lemons, as the community calls them), and the epilogue. The epilogue will not appear because it simply has too many spoilers - yes, even more than the final chapter - and there won't be smut because… Well, FFN is technically only supposed to go up to M, not MA, and I don't want to get stories shut down because of it. Extreme violence and gore is enough for me to get that M rating. Also, I have literally zero experience writing lemons, and I only want to post something that is a decent finished product; we don't want some IKEA-instructions version, "insert tab A into slot B, remove tab A from slot B, repeat," or the ever-popular, "Character 1: 'I'm horny, let's have sex!' Character 2: 'Okay!'". So I'll be working on my skill for a while yet before writing anything like that.

WARNING: There are HUGE spoilers ahead, including but not limited to: character death, major plot points, and even the final chapters of the story. You have been warned; proceed at your own peril.

And now, without further ado, I give you...


	2. Special Episode 5

[Incoming Transmission]

So, this chapter deals with how Special Episode 5 (the one where you play as Grovyle and team up with Dusknoir) would go in my version of the story. Keep in mind that this DOES NOT happen in the actual story due to extenuating circumstances that shall not be mentioned, but at the moment it is a teaser for what Grovyle is going to be like when we finally meet him. And yes, I did rip a decent amount of the first scene directly from the game.

* * *

Special Episode 5

* * *

"I… I will not allow you to change history!" Dusknoir cried out, his composure lost. He lunged at me, arm raised for another giga impact-empowered punch.

"No!" Grovyle dove across the space between us, pushing me away and taking the attack meant for me directly to the stomach.

"You would shield him with you own body?" Dusknoir asked, his peculiar, detached tone of voice back again.

"I have a 'saving people thing', Dusknoir. If you want them then you have to go through me first," Grovyle ground out through teeth clenched against the pain. "You're not getting to those two unless it's over my dead body."

"That can be arranged."

Dusknoir leaped forward again, only for Grovyle to tackle him back. Slowly but surely, Grovyle began to force himself and Dusknoir in the other direction, straight towards the portal.

"No! Stop this! What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you with me, Dusknoir. We're going back to the future."

"What?" Dusknoir and I cried out at the same time.

"Xi! Take the time gears! It's up to you and Kurama now!"

"No! Please, Grovyle, don't leave us. We never would have made it this far without you, there's no way we will make it the rest of the way without you!"

"Well you won't make it farther than this if I don't take Dusknoir back."

"You can't do this, you fool! You'll get all of us killed!" Dusknoir shouted. "If the future we exist in is changed and doesn't exist anymore, then we won't exist either!"

"Quiet, you," Grovyle hissed, "we're almost there, and then it won't matter anymore."

"Please!"

"Xi! I was lucky to have known you and Kurama. Just remember… though the parting hurts… the rest is in your hands now! And tell Kurama that I'm proud of both of you."

And with a final smile back at me, Grovyle disappeared into the shifting vortex with Dusknoir, swallowed up by the great sea of time.

* * *

I sat up, finding myself looking at the bleak, barren greys and blacks of the paralyzed future. Dusknoir lay on the ground next to me, unconscious.

"Lovely. Stuck in the future, which is apparently still paralyzed, so Xi and Kurama failed, and this floating piece of scum is here with me. That's just great."

I sighed.

"No, no, I can still do something to clean this mess up. Sometimes… sometimes the only thing that can be done to clean up is…" I trailed off, knowing that nobody would care even if they could hear me.

I walked over to the unconscious Dusknoir, powered up a pursuit-imbued leaf blade, and sliced his head off. With the leaf blade still active, I then sliced the rest of his body into as many pieces as I could, and scattered them as far as possible.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to do that."

I dashed away without another word.

* * *

Dusk Forest

* * *

"Celebi? Celebi, where are you?"

Three circadian cycles. That was how long I'd been back in the future. The present. Whichever. I can't very well say days when there is no day or night, just the eternal twilight of the frozen time. I'd stealthily made my way to the forest that Celebi lived in but… nothing. She wasn't there. I'd failed her. She'd been captured, most likely when we pulled our stunt to get back to the past again. Great. The death of another to add to my hands.

But I still had hope. It was the only thing that anyone who hadn't succumbed to the darkness of the present had to keep them going. We held onto hope that we would be released from this endless nightmare at some point, and a few of us actually tried to meet that end. But everyone who tried found the same fate as the last to try: death by erasure from the timeline at the hands of an insane goddess. Celebi had most likely met the same fate, but there was only one way to know.

I had to find Dialga.

* * *

Temporal Tower Pinnacle

* * *

Nothing.

There was nothing here.

I growled in frustration, kicking a broken piece of the tower off the edge. It didn't fall, but just hung there, the entropy of the frozen time stream draining energy from everything far faster than normal. It was a wonder that gravity even worked. I turned on my heel, and stalked away towards the stairs back down the tower.

Once at the bottom, a squad of Sableye surrounded me. I hoisted the one that looked most like a leader into the air by its throat, slamming it against the wall of the tower.

"Where. Is. She."

"I have no idea who you—" A body fell off the side of the pathway, and I was holding a different Sableye in my grip.

"I will ask again: Where is she?"

"Which 'she' are you—" Another body flew into the aether.

"Last chance. Tell me where she is, or the rest of you all follow your comrades to a personal meeting with Lord Giritina. Where. Is. Dialga."

* * *

Vast Ice Mountain Peak

* * *

"Dialga."

A lopsided grin met my gaze, and a name leapt unbidden to the front of my mind: Koschei. I shook my head; there was quite literally no time to get distracted. I didn't even know who that was, or where the name came from.

"Where is she?"

The grin faltered for a moment before becoming even wider. She stepped aside to reveal a bound and gagged Celebi. Her eyes were wide in horror as I took a step towards her, and she began frantically shaking her head, tears welling up in her eyes.

The energy cage trapped me almost before I knew what was happening. Honestly, even though Dialga is insane, I should've expected a trap like this one. It's classic 'evil mastermind'. I felt the cage slowly pumping me full of energy, more than I could handle, trapping me in a feedback loop. Faintly, I could hear a pleading voice:

"No! Stop! Why are you doing this to him? Do you not remember what we used to be? You have forsaken everything we stood for! Death is our brother's dominion, not ours!" The voice paused, before speaking again, but the tone was very different. "Time marches onwards, and stops for no one. Except me. Now, Time Lord… die for me."

The energy grew to an unbearable level, and I knew no more.

* * *

[End Transmission]


	3. Bootstrap (Part 1)

[Incoming Transmission]

Alright, this is actually going off on a completely different timeline from the main story. While the previous chapter was more of a version of how Special Episode 5 would go in my AU, ths is actually a completely different timeline. Sort of. It'll become obvious once you read the chapter title. So, without further ado, I give you...

* * *

Alternate Ending 2: Bootstrap (Part 1)

* * *

"No, nono, nonono, no!"

"While I won't say it like that, I do have to agree with you."

"But this is so screwed up! We're in the past!"

"Yes."

"And the town square doesn't exist yet!"

"Yes."

"That means I haven't killed anyone yet!"

"Yes."

"So we can keep that from happening! And I won't have to live an ostracised life."

"And that's where you're wrong."

"What? Why not?"

"Because if we deviate from what happened in our past, then the series of events that brought us to this point in time may not ever happen, thus meaning we never make it here and never make your life better, in which case the series of events would happen, and we would end up here and have the same argument we are having right now."

Kurama's eyes crossed in confusion as she tried to follow the explanation. "My head hurts. And when did you get so knowledgeable about causality, anyway?"

I shrugged. "Had a little talk about it with Celebi while we were in the future. It was really rather enlightening. Also, she said about the exact same thing to me to make sure we didn't do anything stupid if we ended up arriving before we left."

Kurama grumbled half-heartedly.

"In any case," I continued, "how far back do your memories go? We can use that to place where we are in your history, and thus what we can and can't do."

"Well, the Wigglytuff Rescue and Exploration Guild didn't form until after time started going wrong, and that didn't happen until at least after the… incident. Timing was a coincidence, of course, but it was just another thing to blame me for."

"Do you remember how long it was between the fire that took out the village and that day? Because the entire layout is wrong, not just the lack of the town square."

"I was only a month or two old when the fire happened, and that was… at least two years later. It was a long time coming. Then we met about five years after that."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that you're well over the age to evolve but still haven't?"

"For some, it's a choice not to evolve; but ever since time started breaking, nobody's been able to evolve. Ooh! It's before time started to break, so we can get evolved and stuff!" Kurama's jaw dropped. "It's before the fire. We can meet my parents, and I can see Uncle Sceptile again."

"...Wait, what?"

"Uncle Sceptile. Okay, he wasn't my actual uncle, but he was my parents' best friend, and part of their rescue team, too! He took care of me for a while after my parents disappeared, and told me stories about the cool stuff they did together…" Kurama's face fell suddenly. "...but then he disappeared, too."

"Kurama, what species were your parents?" I asked carefully, my unease growing.

"Huh? What kind of silly question is that?"

"Just answer the question. It could be a matter of life and death not just for us, but for the universe as a whole."

"Geez, no need to get so dramatic about it. My mom was a ninetales, obviously, and my dad was a lucario. They were an exploration and rescue team with Uncle Sceptile, and…" She trailed off as I began pacing nervously and cursing up a storm. "Whats wrong?"

"What's wrong?" I let out a hysterical chuckle. "I'll tell you 'what's wrong'! We're in the past, right? And we're from before your remembered timeline as well. That means that neither of us know the details on what happened at this time in the past."

"I don't see where you're going with this."

"What species were your parents' rescue and exploration team? Ninetales, lucario, and sceptile. What species are we? Vulpix and riolu. We have a friend who is a grovyle. Are you following yet?"

"Oh…"

"That's not even the worst problem!"

"It's not?"

"No! The worst problem is that we don't know where Grovyle is." I began pacing. "We know that your parents' team showed up out of the blue one day, the three of them together, and began to kick ass and take names shortly afterwards. That means that if we walk into town without him, we obliterate our original timeline and cease to exist. If we make a name for ourselves trying to find Grovyle, we obliterate our original timeline and cease to exist. If the two of us don't at the very least adopt a child - who will happen to be you - we obliterate our original timeline and cease to exist. If we meet up with Xelk'ithi to try and get this sorted out before we met up with her in our subjective pasts, we obliterate our original timeline and cease to exist. Hell-" I threw my hands up in the air in a gesture of futility. "-we could probably give an absol a heart attack just from coming within a few miles of them due to the magnitude of world-ending paradox potential surrounding us. For all we know, the reason that Dialga went nuts in our subjective pasts is because we've created a closed causality loop around ourselves! This is an absolute nightmare!"

"Xi, calm down."

"Calm? I am completely calm!" I shouted, eyes wild and breathing heavily.

"Xi, if you get locked up as a nutcase to protect the rest of the population, then 'we obliterate our original timeline and cease to exist,' right? Because we'd enter town without Grovyle and we wouldn't make the rescue and exploration team."

I hate it when other people are right, especially if they're using my own words against me. I closed my eyes and took a few calming breaths. "Okay, calm. I am calm. Picture of serenity." I took a final deep breath, then let it out while opening my eyes. "Alright, we need a plan."

* * *

So basically, Xi and Kurama find themselves back in time a little bit farther than planned after meeting Celebi in the future. Due to the fact that genetics don't really matter that much in the Pokemon universe, it at least means that it won't end up as a compiling paradox that leads to Kurama becoming a riolu. Of course, unless they adopt, it does count as incest... which is really weird. So they'll end up adopting, because I do not condone incest! But like always with this compilation of stories, these are only possible ways that the plot could have gone and in no way reflect the actual plot of the story. Nah, that's even more confusing... just wait until you see the Dialga fight! I'm about a quarter of the way done with it right now, and it's giving me a headache even trying to think about it right now!

Oh, and as always, R&R. It always makes me so happy to see somebody give me a review. But please log in first so that I can actually reply to your reviews. It annoys me to no end when I can't explain my reasoning to you. Yes, I realise that stories dealing with time-travel/time-jumps can be hard to understand, but everything will work out in the end! I promise!

[Transmission Terminated]


	4. In Apex Tempus (Part 3)

[Incoming Transmission]

This chapter is the actual ending of the story, so spoilers ahoy! That said, you were warned at the beginning that things would be spoiler-heavy, but it only seems fair that I should warn you again since this is the end.

...You have been warned.

* * *

In Apex Tempus (Part 3)

* * *

Kurama dashed up to Grovyle's downed form. "Oh Arceus! Grovyle! Are you okay? Grovyle?"

He coughed slightly, replying, "Well, it's not as deep as a well, or as wide as the Guild's doorway, but it's enough; that last dragon claw will serve me. I'd imagine that if it weren't for the fact that time here is out of synch with the rest of the world, I'd be dead by tomorrow. As it is, I think I'm going to die yesterday."

I kneeled beside him, tears in my eyes. "Don't say that, Grovyle! You can't die now!"

"I can die, and I'll wager I will."

Dialga, now back in its normal form, approached the three of us. "I was the one who injured you so grievously, but it is within my power to heal you. I could simply turn back time for you to before you were injured. It is only right that I should save you, just as you saved me; a life for a life."

The prone pokémon chuckled mirthlessly. "No, no, it's fine. I remember everything now. I'll be okay, I'm simply going home." He turned his head towards me, continuing, "You two should go home, too. I'm sure everyone is worried about you back at Treasure Town. Just leave me here."

Kurama glared at him, eyes bright with tears, vehemently denying him. "No! We won't leave you!"

I chimed in with my own two poké, trying to convince him to stay. "Yeah! What kind of partners would it make us if we just left you here to die?"

I found myself affixed with a slightly cold stare from Grovyle, but still cold enough to send shivers up my spine from the feel of it on me. His voice sounded just as cold, without all the humor normally in it, as he replied, "It would make you good partners that would leave a comrade beyond all hope of saving to die in peace. Don't worry, Solara will be here for the end, and for that, I am grateful. Just go, now."

With heavy hearts, Kurama and I turned from the prone form of our fallen friend.

"Xi!"

We turned back to Grovyle, a small measure of hope in our eyes.

"Take care, Xi. I was lucky to have known you." He gave a small smile to the two of us. "And you kn―" Grovyle started coughing a little, but soon got it under control. He smiled at us again, and gave a small chuckle. "I'm going to die here," he stated frankly. "But you know what? I don't care. Because even though the parting hurts, I did so many great things with this life. You did too, Xi. Now go."

We turned away once again, and fled back down the tower.

I looked down at my hands as they started glowing slightly, and then turned to the only other being remaining atop the tower. With a small chuckle, I questioned, "Looks like it's time for me to go, doesn't it milady?"

She looked at my glowing hands with slight astonishment, then looked deep into my eyes. "I'm hardly believing what I'm seeing," she began, the amazement clear in her eyes, "but… is it really you?"

I chuckled dryly at the question. "Believe it or not, Lady Algydia, it is me. Now―agh!" I doubled over in pain as my body started healing itself, and my breathing was labored as I continued, "―can… can you… bring Solara to… to me? The… final request of a―" A fit of coughing seized me, the last few coughs ejecting disturbingly high amounts of chlorophyll-laden green blood. "―of a dying pokémon?"

The great blue Mistress of Time smiled faintly at me, replying, "It would be my pleasure." She roared out towards the heavens, the sound echoing throughout all of time, every instant of every place, but only audible in one time, and only to one single person.

500 years later,

At the peak of Vast Ice Mountain

I curled up into a little ball and cried. It was the only thing I had left to do: cry. Grovyle―no, the Director, I had to remember that―was trapped in the past, I was trapped in the future, and nobody was coming to save me. At least the Director still had Xi to help him try to fix things, but that obviously didn't work, seeing as time was still frozen.

Oh, and, for going against the will of Primal Dialga―she was definitely no longer the Lady Algydia that I was friends with―I was to be executed. The day, such as it were in a land with neither time nor daylight, was looking extremely bleak.

I had been pursued for days across the time-frozen wasteland that was my prison, fleeing the loyal henchmen of my former friend. Eventually, though, I had been captured, dragged back across the vast continent I was trapped on, and back to the Hidden Land, to Vast Ice Mountain.

Oh, sure, I had held on to the belief that maybe the Director would still find some way to save me, but as I stood, trapped on the summit of Vast Ice Mountain, I finally saw the futility in my hope. There was nothing left. Nothing that could save me, nothing I could use to escape, nothing. When it finally came home to me, the only emotion left was despair.

So I cried.

I poured my despairing soul out into the skies, and my captors simply laughed. They laughed, knowing that soon my wailing would be silenced forever by my ex-friend's powerful, time-shredding roar.

I regained my composure as one of them pulled me upright, and looked the orange behemoth in front of me squarely in the eye. "So, Algydia―" I spat the name out like a curse, as she hardly deserved my respect anymore.

A few of the henchmen gasped, appalled that I would use her name instead of calling her 'Master Dialga' as they did. I mean, really? She's a female! If they called her titles like that, she would be Mistress Dialga! Actually, no, that just sounds creepy. I can see why they did it that way.

"―are you going to kill me slowly, or be merciful towards your old friend? You know, for old times' sake?"

The only answer I received from the insane Mistress of Time was a lopsided grin that wouldn't have been out of place on the face of the Director's old friend Koschei, from what I'd heard. I sighed grimly, knowing that she was too far gone for talking to have any effect.

I stood up straight, holding my arms out to the sides. "Alright then, give me your best shot."

The gem on her chest began to glow brighter and brighter, before she pulled back her head in preparation to blast me into the Void That Is Between. In the split second between her blasting me and my demise, I heard the clear, ringing peal of what my friend had sounded like before the tower was destroyed. I smiled slightly, knowing that even if I was about to be destroyed forever, I would still have one friendly voice in my memory when I died.

500 years earlier,

Temporal Tower Pinnacle

I looked up to the bright blue sky above me as I began to fade into the black of unconsciousness. However, a sudden appearance above me forced me to pull myself back out of said sweet embrace.

The sky started to rip itself in half, and a small, smoking pink form began to fall from the jagged hole in the sky. My eyes widened as I recognized Solara, and I forced myself up so that I could catch her, but I collapsed onto the ground as another spasm of pain ripped through my body.

I weakly called out, "Solara," and, like a miracle, she spread he wings and began to fly again. She pulled in close to the top of the tower, executing a not exactly perfect landing nearby.

Alright, to be frank, she crash-landed, although she didn't injure herself… much.

Again, I weakly called her name, and she turned towards me, tears bright in her eyes. She tackled me, crying tears of both sadness and joy.

"I missed you so, so much," she whispered to me.

I gave a pained smile, and let out a small chuckle. "Well, I missed you even more. Even when I didn't have my memories, I still felt that I was missing something." Suddenly, another coughing fit seized me, and another glob of green blood came out of my mouth.

Her eyes widened, and she stepped back to look at me. "You're dying!" The tears she had been holding in began falling, before she embraced me again. "No! You can't die now!"

"No, no, it's okay―"

"Don't you dare say that! I just got you back, and I'm not going to lose you again!"

"No, really, I'm fine, I've still got one more left in me. One more regeneration."

She sobbed into my shoulder again, gripping me even tighter. "But it won't be you anymore."

I stroked the back of her head gently, saying, "Of course it will. It will be just as much the same me as when I got my old body back, or when I lost it and got this one. It's still me."

She relaxed and backed away so I could finish regenerating, but I pulled her back to me, placing her ear next to my mouth. "Xian," I whispered, so soft that no one other than her could have heard. "It's my name."

I couldn't see it, but I felt her smile behind me as she whispered a single word to me: "Nivea." She pulled away, finally allowing me to regenerate in peace, knowing that the two of us were now bound in ways that no ceremony could begin to compete with.

I smiled at her one last time. "Well, let's hope I get something good, eh?" I convulsed in pain one last time, before standing and throwing my arms out to the sides, and my head up towards the sky.

'This…' I thought to myself, 'This must be what true happiness feels like.'

Three minutes earlier,

Entrance to Temporal Tower

I walked back to the Rainbow Stoneship alongside Kurama with a heavy heart. We both realised that he had wanted us to, but we had just abandoned Grovyle on the top of Temporal Tower―as he was dying, no less! I felt tears sliding down my cheeks, washing away the accumulated dirt left over from our mad dash through the Hidden Land to save the Tower.

"I just don't understand."

I looked over to Kurama as she spoke, giving a small, sad smile. "I know how you feel. He kind of just… forced us to go against our way of life." I rubbed her shoulder consolingly, feeling the unusual warmth I'd felt whenever I touched her as of late―and not just because she was a fire type; this was something more.

No, I think I'd finally found out what it really was: love. Maybe it was mere infatuation, but I felt it went deeper than that. We had reached a point where words were hardly needed to understand each other. Part of that was just combat synergy, but again, it felt deeper than that. We just… knew each other to the point that we could almost always guess exactly what the other was thinking.

It felt wonderful.

And, of course, one couldn't forget the way the sun glinted off her fur at sunset, or the impossibly deep onyx eyes, or the way said eyes reflected her fire in hundreds of different hues, or… well, she was just perfect. There wasn't anything wrong with her other than what others had done to her in the past, and I'd helped her get over that a long time ago.

It made it that much more difficult to leave. And I had to leave. A lone tear fell from my eye as a small, glowing particle lifted up from my fur.

"Kurama."

She turned towards me, tears still in her eyes. "Xi?"

"I'm sorry, Kurama. I've kept this to myself for quite a while… But it looks like… I have to say goodbye."

Her eyes widened, and fresh tears sprung up to mix with the ones she was barely holding back. "Goodbye? I don't understand!"

"Dusknoir told me while you were getting the Rainbow Stoneship ready. If we changed the future, everyone from the future would disappear… That's why I have to go. I'm destined to disappear." A few more particles lifted off of me as I spoke.

"No! Xi, I can't lose you too! We just lost Grovyle! You're…" A small sob racked her frame as the tears began to spill. "…You're all I have left…"

"Thank you, Kurama… Thank you for everything… The adventures… Making our own rescue team…"

"But I couldn't have done it without you! I only made it this far because you helped me! If you hadn't been there, I would never have gotten back my Relic Fragment, or beaten Drowzee, or… or…"

"I'm so sorry Kurama, but you'll have to become stronger on your own now. You have to live! You need to get home so that you can keep this from ever happening again…"

I knelt down to put myself at eye level with Kurama as the glowing particles started coming off of me with more frequency.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so lucky to have had you as my friend…"

"I feel the same, Xi! To me…" Her voice suddenly became very timid. "You're more important to me than anything."

"Even red gummis?" I asked with a small chuckle, recalling our first job.

The small smile I got from my joke was worth making a joke at a time like this… anything to see her smile one last time…

"Definitely more than red gummis."

"I feel the same way, Kurama… You're more important than the whole world… the whole universe, even… More important than every star―" The particles were drifting off of me at an alarming rate now. "―every planet―" My legs started fading away slowly. "―and everything that ever is, or will be."

Tears were flowing freely from both of us now as we stared deep into each other's eyes.

"Maybe…" Kurama started, but then she trailed off.

"I know. Maybe, if I didn't have to leave, we might have had something more." My torso was beginning to fade now. "But even though I'm going to disappear… I'll never forget you."

And like that, we were kissing each other. I wrapped my arms around her neck tightly, not wanting to ever let go of the beautiful vulpine figure before me. But even as I held her, my arms started fading away as well and simply passed through her.

I pulled away from the kiss, my entire body now a mere spectral form of what I had once been. I spoke one last time before I disappeared completely. "And you know, I may have left the future with nothing to lose when I would disappear… but now, while I'm here with you, Kurama…

"I don't want to go."

Then, the lights coming off of me increased in brightness until it was hard to even keep my eyes open anymore as they flurried around me, and I felt no more.

* * *

...Yep. There you go. The end, there's nothing else left after that but the epilogue, and I've already said why you won't be getting that.

[Transmission Terminated]


End file.
